How the world has changed, Covid accelerated it but for a good few years, we seem to be on a trend of becoming less and less reliant on forming relationships "in-person".
Zoom, Skype, Teams, Google Meet, Facetime, Discord, there are so many options for meeting with people online. And of course, full projects can be successfully completed using only email or WhatsApp. I have done this myself, working with someone based in another country, or someone quite local.
As a business owner and service provider, I see it as my responsibility to be accessible, and why that might sound as if it means in-person, what it really means it what ever method suits my client. I have formed some fantastic working relationships with only the use of video meetings and have actually made lasting friendships on the back of it. I have also completed successful projects where communication has only been via email.
I remember coming out of the Covid lockdowns and for quite a period after, I had got so used to online meetings. I actually remember feeling quite nervous going to my first face to face client meeting, and had a nightmare finding any smart trousers that still fitted, lockdown had not been kind to my waistline !!
I have to say it rekindled my opinion that there is nothing like an in-person meeting to really get to know and understand one another. I see one of my main tasks as a web designer is to get a complete understanding of what a client wants, to allow me to build what they are seeing in their mind. Being able to ask questions, follow up questions, and a few more questions is so different in person. We all know how important body language is, from a quick online search, "communication is 55% nonverbal, 38% vocal, and 7% words only." (from Albert Mehrabian, a researcher of body language).
So am I 50% better if project meetings are in-person? I would really say it depends on the client and the nature of the project. If a clear brief is provided and branding is already in place, a project is usually quite easy to translate into a finished site. If a client has an idea and they want that support to develop it and bounce ideas around, that is certainly easier face-to-face but with the advancements in video meetings, not only technology wise but also our ability and experience to interact online and let our personalities transmit, communicating my Zoom or MS Teams is only a small compromise on an in-person meeting.
I am thinking though, if I am 50% more effective for in-person meetings, can I charge 50% more?